(Photo Credit: The Recycling Partnership)Keurig Dr Pepper became a founding sponsor of the Recycling Partnership’s new Polypropylene Recycling Coalition, committing $10 million over the next five years for the industry collaboration effort to increase and improve polypropylene plastic recovery and recycling in the United States.
“The coalition will work to solidify polypropylene’s status as a standard curbside recycling material through projects that enhance collection, sortation, and processing in recycling facilities which, in turn, will increase the value and supply of recycled polypropylene (rPP) and reduce the need for virgin plastic used in packaging,” according to Keurig Dr Pepper.
Achieving 100% recyclable or compostable packaging that incorporates 30% post-consumer recycled content by 2025 is one of the North America beverage company’s sustainability commitments.
Monique Oxender, Keurig Dr Pepper’s chief sustainability officer, said that the company is focused on driving change in the nearly 20,000 complex recycling systems currently found across the United States through targeted investments and collaborations like the Polypropylene Recycling Coalition.
A 2020 report on US curbside recycling from the Recycling Partnership found that there could be as much as 1.6 billion pounds of polypropylene available from single-family homes every year that could be recycled into a wide range of new products including automotive parts as well as personal care and food packaging.
The Polypropylene Recycling Coalition launched this week and set an initial funding target of $35 million over five years. Besides Keurig Dr Pepper, it has support from founding members Braksem and the Walmart Foundation. Other inaugural members include the American Chemistry Council, Danone North America, EFS Plastics, KW Plastics, LyondellBasell, Procter & Gamble, St. Joseph Plastics, and Winpak, according to the Recycling Partnership.
Recently Keurig Kr Pepper, the Walmart Foundation, and Procter & Gamble were among the brands and foundations committing more than $54 million to the Closed Loop Infrastructure Fund, which supports the development of additional recycling infrastructure and new end markets in the US.
